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. 2024 Jun 28;13(7):785.
doi: 10.3390/antiox13070785.

Antioxidant Profile, Amino Acids Composition, and Physicochemical Characteristics of Cherry Tomatoes Are Associated with Their Color

Min Woo Baek  1   2 , Jong Hwan Lee  1   2 , Chang Eun Yeo  2   3 , Su Ho Tae  1   2 , Se Min Chang  1   2 , Han Ryul Choi  4 , Do Su Park  2   5 , Shimeles Tilahun  2   5   6 , Cheon Soon Jeong  1   2
Affiliations

Antioxidant Profile, Amino Acids Composition, and Physicochemical Characteristics of Cherry Tomatoes Are Associated with Their Color

Min Woo Baek et al. Antioxidants (Basel). .

Abstract

This study was conducted to characterize different colored lines of cherry tomatoes and derive information regarding their metabolite accumulation. Different colored cherry tomato cultivars, namely 'Jocheong', 'BN Satnolang', 'Gold Chance', 'Black Q', and 'Snacktom', were assessed for their firmness, taste characteristics, and nutritional metabolites at the commercial ripening stage. The cultivars demonstrated firmness to withstand impacts during harvesting and postharvest operations. The significant variations in the Brix to acid ratio (BAR) and the contents of phenylalanine, glutamic acid, and aspartic acid highlight the distinct taste characteristics among the cultivars, and the nutritional metabolites are associated with the color of the cultivars. The cultivar choices would be the black-colored 'Black Q' for chlorophylls, β-carotene, total flavonoids, and anthocyanins; the red-colored 'Snacktom' for lycopene; the orange-colored 'Gold Chance' for total phenolics; and the green-colored 'Jocheong' for chlorophylls, vitamin C, GABA, glutamic acid, essential amino acids, and total free amino acids. The antioxidant capacity varied among the cultivars, with 'Gold Chance' consistently exhibiting the highest activity across the four assays, followed by 'Snacktom'. This study emphasizes the importance of screening cultivars to support breeding programs for improving the nutritional content and encourages the inclusion of a diverse mix of different colored cherry tomatoes in packaging to obtain the cumulative or synergistic effects of secondary metabolites.

Keywords: GABA; anthocyanins; cherry tomatoes; lycopene; phenolics; β-carotene.

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Conflict of interest statement

Author C.E.Y. is employed by Sunmin F&B Co., Ltd. The remaining authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Harvesting stages and external colors of the tested cherry tomato cultivars. The color of the fruit was assessed using the L* (brightness), Hunter a* (redness), and b* (yellowness) values.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b and total chlorophyll content contents of ‘Jocheong’, ‘BN Satnolang’, ‘Gold chance’, ‘Black Q’, and ‘Snacktom’ cherry tomato cultivars at harvest. Different letters on the bars indicate a significant difference between the mean values of the cultivars (n = 3) at p < 0.05.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Lycopene, β-carotene, total phenolics, total flavonoids, vitamin C and anthocyanins contents of cherry tomato cultivars at harvest. Different letters on the bars indicate a significant difference between the mean values of the cultivars (n = 3) at p < 0.05.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Biplot of nutritional quality parameters in five cherry tomato cultivars at harvest. Data normalization was performed using the median combined with autoscaling, and the analysis was conducted using MetaboAnalyst 6.0 software (https://www.metaboanalyst.ca/ (accessed on 20 November 2023)). The parameters include chlorophyll a (Cha), chlorophyll b (Chb), total chlorophyll (TCh), total soluble solids (TSSs), titratable acid (TA), total amino acids (TAAs), total essential amino acids (TEAs), vitamin C (Vit C), total phenolics (TPs), total flavonoids (TFs), Hunter’s a* (a*), Hunter’s b* (b*), Hunter’s L* (L*), α-diphenyl-β-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), ferric-reducing antioxidant power (FRAP), 2,2′-azino-bis (3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) (ABTS), and reducing power (RP).
Figure 5
Figure 5
Heat map of the collected parameters for the ‘Jocheong’, ‘BN Satnolang’, ‘Gold chance’, ‘Black Q’, and ‘Snacktom’ cherry tomato cultivars at harvest. Data normalization was performed using the median combined with autoscaling, and the analysis was conducted using MetaboAnalyst 6.0 software (https://www.metaboanalyst.ca/ (accessed on 20 November 2023)). The parameters include chlorophyll a (Cha), chlorophyll b (Chb), total chlorophyll (TCh), total soluble solids (TSSs), titratable acid (TA), total amino acids (TAAs), total essential amino acids (TEAs), vitamin C (Vit C), total phenolics (TPs), total flavonoids (TFs), Hunter’s a* (a*), Hunter’s b* (b*), Hunter’s L* (L*), α-diphenyl-β-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), ferric-reducing antioxidant power (FRAP), 2,2′-azino-bis (3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) (ABTS), and reducing power (RP).
Figure 6
Figure 6
Correlation heat map of nutritional quality parameters in five cherry tomato cultivars at harvest. Data normalization was performed using the median combined with autoscaling, and the analysis was conducted using MetaboAnalyst 6.0 software (https://www.metaboanalyst.ca/ (accessed on 20 November 2023)). The parameters include chlorophyll a (Cha), chlorophyll b (Chb), total chlorophyll (TCh), total soluble solids (TSSs), titratable acid (TA), total amino acids (TAAs), total essential amino acids (TEAs), vitamin C (Vit C), total phenolics (TPs), total flavonoids (TFs), Hunter’s a* (a*), Hunter’s b* (b*), Hunter’s L* (L*), α-diphenyl-β-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), ferric-reducing antioxidant power (FRAP), 2,2′-azino-bis (3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) (ABTS), and reducing power (RP).
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